Coach Q&A: Curt Cignetti reacts to Indiana's Week 10 win over Maryland

Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti spoke with the media Saturday night following Indiana’s road win over Maryland.

Below is his full Q&A — as well as a transcript of his conversation, to be added once it becomes available.

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CIGNETTI: All right, it’s hard to win on the road. Good win. Game didn’t start out great with the turnover. Defense did a great job of holding them to three points. In the second drive, the offense didn’t do a whole lot either. Defense held them again. And at the end of the day, the defense created five turnovers. This was the No. 1 team in the country in turnover ratio going in the game. Offense ran the ball for 370 yards. And I think Maryland ran for 25. So, it’s hard to win on the road. It’s a really good win.

Q: Curt, first, were any of those injuries, were there any serious injury concerns?

CIGNETTI: No, we came out good. I mean, Sarratt, hamstring tightened up on him a little bit. And we’ve got some guys with some bumps and bruises. And as the week went on, it didn’t look real good for Fisher playing. So, there was no surprise there. And Drew Evans will be out for a few weeks. So, we came out pretty good. Now, we got some guys that are sore. We’ve played a few games in a row now, but we came out good.

Q: You talked about the way the defense helped early, the complementary football this team plays. How much does that start to feed on itself with this group, that the defense understands the offense will pick them up if they need? The offense knows it can go a couple empty drives because the defense isn’t going to cave, just how much confidence does that give this group?

CIGNETTI: Well, I mean, from my standpoint, the thing I’m most proud of is the way they listen to the message about playing one play at a time, regardless of circumstances, and you see that in the fourth quarter. But the defense has, all year long, risen to the occasion when their backs are against the wall. Now, it wasn’t perfect tonight defensively, trust me. Open field tackling wasn’t very good. They had some explosive plays. But there’s a lot of good things there on tape, and it’s a good win.

Q: Coach, I wanted to get your thoughts on your offensive line’ s play. Obviously, Evans isn’t there yet. Yet you guys totally ran over them like three or four drives, and 367.

CIGNETTI: Yeah, that’s a combination of having a physical mindset and our backs running really hard, and receivers part of that blocking pattern, too, and breaking tackles takes all 11 guys. And I think there was that point, you saw it early in the game. They went down the first drive and scored (in) the second half, 20-10. We answered, and then we started getting some turnovers and opened the game up. And then you just sort of saw a little change in that game, right? And that’s usually how it happens in the run game. Doesn’t happen right away. It usually happens sometime in the middle of the third quarter, and that’s what happened tonight.

Q: Curt, you guys have been great on both sides of the ball in the second half of games, and especially defensively. You’ve only given up two touchdowns in the second half all season. How important is that for that defense to get stronger as the games go on?

CIGNETTI: I mean, that’s a great stat. I wasn’t aware of that, and our defense has been really great all year. How many total touchdowns have we given up? Seven. Seven all year, so. But look, there’s a lot to clean up, trust me, but good night. It’s a good night.

Q: It kind of seems like there’s just this innate trait, where you guys just keep swinging, score aside, time aside. How special, how unique is it to have a trait like that?

CIGNETTI: That’s the key to the drill to me, I mean, is that you’re playing from the first play to the last play the same. And we’re getting close to getting that, and we’re real close. And that’s why you see some of the results that you see. There’s not the ups and downs relative to good plays, bad plays, circumstances of the game. You see guys laying it on the line every play. And I give them and the assistants a lot of credit for that.

Q: Curt, the way you guys started the game, this isn’t the first time you’ve faced a little adversity like that. And I mean, it just doesn’t seem to shake your group. Why is this team able to be so unflappable?

CIGNETTI: Well, it’s a veteran group. We got, on offense, a lot of guys have played a lot of football. And really, the same on defense. So chances are, all these guys have been in this situation before, right? And they know how to respond or not react, so to speak, right? The key is always your response. So, really proud of our defense, the way they played, and then the offense started picking it up. And a lot of it was the ground game, but the pass game chipped into it.

Q: With some of the bumps and bruises that you guys picked up tonight, what did tonight’s performance tell you guys about, tell you specifically about the depth of your football team?

CIGNETTI: Well, we’ve had some guys step in, step up, and that’s what you’ve got to have. And sometimes you never really know about a guy until he gets an opportunity. And that’s really true, because when a guy gets an opportunity, he can become a little bit of a different kind of guy. Because the two’s get limited reps in practice, and I’m sure it’s not fun. But we’re going to need more people to step up, because we don’t have an off week for a couple more weeks yet.

Q: Curt, last week you had kind of talked about Mike Shanahan and his play calling. I was just curious, throughout your coaching career, at any point, were you the play caller? And just what makes you have that confidence in him?

CIGNETTI: Yeah, I called them at IUP. Mike, I hired our last year at IUP. When we went to Elon, I hired a new coordinator and gave him play-calling responsibility. But I would interject depending on the game, but I kind of walked. But I’ve always kind of run the meetings, so to speak, the offensive staff meetings in the season. And I’ll interject, and that hasn’t changed. Lately, not as much, I’m kind of letting him and Chandler go.

Q: You’ve mentioned many times how experienced this team is, but you also talked about guys getting opportunities. I know nobody’s worried about the future, but how encouraging is it when you see younger guys like Mario Landino, like Khobie Martin, guys that, when they’re handed that opportunity, whether it’s obviously early in the game, or even as these games wear on, you’re seeing young guys really sort of take advantage of development opportunities?

CIGNETTI: No, you’re exactly right, because the thing about this job, you’re getting ready to play a game, right? But you’re always looking down the road at your 2026 team and 2027 team. And the new portal date and how it’s going to affect your program, etc., etc., high school recruiting. And then to have young guys step up like that, it’s good to see.

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